week-in-review

Article

The Weird Week in Review

470 Feet of Extension Cord Leads to Arrest 23-year-old Asher Woodworth was arrested in Bennington, Vermont while trying to steal the giant pepper off the roof of the local Chili's Restaurant. Three women who were acting as lookouts were also arrested. Police seized a hacksaw, power drill, and 470 feet of extension cords that were stretched over a parking lot, across the street, and plugged in at a Home Depot store. The four had been at the job for hours, and had once left to go get more extension... READ ON

Article

The Weird Week in Review

Child Held for Ransom Over Pizza Lisa Paardekooper of Darwin, Australia ordered a pizza to be delivered last Saturday, but refused to pay full price when the pizza arrived an hour late. She was on the phone with the pizza parlor trying to negotiate a discount when the pizza deliverer allegedly grabbed her four-year-old son as ransom. Lisa Paardekooper claims the driver held Cain for 40 seconds, demanding cash. ''He said give me the pizza back or the money,'' she said. ''He stuck his hand through the... READ ON

Article

The Weird Week in Review

Dutch Moon Rock is Fake A former prime minister of the Netherlands received an Apollo 11 moon rock as a gift from U.S. ambassador J. William Middendorf in 1969. After the death of Willem Drees in 1998 the rock went to the Dutch National Museum in Amsterdam. In 2006, a space expert saw the stone on display and questioned the museum about the rock. An investigation revealed the rock was not from the moon after all. The museum called NASA and confirmed that moon rocks were not given away in 1969, and any... READ ON

Article

The Weird Week in Review

Exploding Refrigerator Wrecks Home Kathy Cullingworth of Normanton, England was awakened by an early morning explosion downstairs in her home. She and her husband found their refrigerator had exploded, leaving appliances wrecked, the kitchen walls cracked, and windows broken. Firefighters came to the home to turn off the electricity and inspect the damage. Cullingworth said there was no carbonated drinks or alcohol in the refrigerator that could have caused the blast. Investigators don't know what... READ ON

Article

The Weird Week in Review

Cat Saves Man from Burning Home With most "pet saves family from fire" stories, it's easy to assume that the pet woke someone up because it wanted OUT of the house. In this case, the cat came in from outside, and it didn't even live there! Engineer Andrew Williams was asleep when the fire broke out at his bungalow in Bracknell in Berkshire. As black smoke filled the property, his neighbour's cat Hugo came through a cat-flap and raised the alarm by clawing at the father-of-two's face. Rescuers... READ ON

Article

The Weird Week in Review

Giant Catfish Attacks Fisherman It sounds like a fish story. A 36-year-old Austrian tourist says he was helping a friend to land a large catfish in a lake near Gyor, Hungary when the fish bit him in the leg and pulled him into the water! The catfish is estimated to be 6.5 feet long, weighing 220 pounds. The tourist kicked the fish in the head several times before he was released. The fish then swam away. Sizzling Tortoise Survives... READ ON

Article

The Weird Week in Review

Fake Cop Pulls Over Real Cop 21-year-old Antonio Fernandez Martinez of Oakland was impersonating a police officer when he tried to pull over a car driven by Jim Beere, who is an actual police officer in plainclothes working undercover. Fernandez was driving a car with flashing lights and loudspeakers. Martinez was promptly arrested. If convicted, Martinez faces more than a sentence for impersonating an officer -he will also have his probation revoked on an earlier charge of car theft. Misspelled... READ ON

Article

The Weird Week in Review

Collect $4 Million; Go Directly to Jail Barry Shell of Brampton, Ontario could call it his lucky day -or his unlucky day. He won $4.4 million dollars in the Canadian Lotto drawing July 18th. Monday, he went to pick up his winnings at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation. When he walked out of the building, he was arrested on the spot on a six-year-old warrant for theft under $5,000. Lottery officials say all winners are checked out for warrants. At least he was able to raise the bail. Baffling... READ ON

Article

The Weird Week in Review

Man Repairs Airbed, Blows Up Apartment An unidentified 45-year-old man in Duesseldorf, Germany tried to fix a leaky airbed by patching it with tire repair solvent. He left the glue on overnight and tried to inflate the bed the next day. A spark from the electric air pump he was using ignited the glue and the resulting explosion blew his living room wall into the building's stairwell. The blast damaged furniture and walls. The apartment building was evacuated until a structural inspection could be carried... READ ON

Article

The Weird Week in Review

Rare Tiger has No Stripes A six-month-old tiger cub at Cango Wildlife Ranch, near Cape Town, South Africa is the rarest of the rare -a white tiger with no stripes. Zookeepers weren't sure that the female cub named Fareeda was really stripeless until she reached six months of age, since young cubs sometimes grow into their stripes. Fareeda is the first white Bengal tiger to be born in captivity in South Africa. White Bengals are not albinos, but the result of a rare mutation that is passed genetically.... READ ON